15,600 COVID-19 Cases Among Kids Recorded In Washington Over 2 Weeks

More than 15,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases were registered by health officials in Washington over the past two weeks as infections in children continue to rise across the United States.

Between Jan. 30 and Feb. 13, Washington health officials recorded a total of 15,656 infections among children aged 0 to 13. The highest case rate was recorded among children aged 4 to 10, wherein there were 1,370.1 cases per 100,000 people.

COVID-19 cases reported among children of other age groups also surpassed 3,000. In preschool-aged children, there were 3,015 infections. In middle schoolers, health officials registered 3,481 cases during the same two-week period, according to the latest data from the Washington State Department of Health.

The report also recorded COVID-19 cases among high schoolers, with health officials reporting 5,753 infections over the past 14 days.

Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 13, there were 15 children and youth aged 0 to 19 who died of the novel coronavirus in Washington state.

Cases reported by the state’s health department came from the Washington State Disease Reporting System (WDRS) which defines a “case” as an individual aged 0 to 19 who tested positive for COVID-19 through a PCR or antigen test.

Across the U.S., health officials recorded a total of 1,104,344 child COVID-19 cases between Jan. 27 and Feb. 17, bringing the country’s total pediatric infections to 12,515,391, as of last Thursday.

Overall, there were 16,628 cases per 100,000 children. The youth now represents 19% of all cases recorded in the U.S., a joint report from The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association showed.

The cumulative mortality from 46 states, New York City, Puerto Rico and Guam also showed that children represented 0% to 0.25% of all COVID-19 deaths recorded.

Health experts continue to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated, adding that it is the best way to protect them from severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths.

Additionally, a new study showed that children who received at least one dose of the vaccine were less likely to develop multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a rare but serious inflammatory syndrome caused by COVID-19 that could become life-threatening if not treated immediately.